The Commerce Commission has ordered retailer PD Mart (formerly Panda Mart) to halt the sale of car seats over safety concerns. Photo: Commerce Commission / supplied
The Commerce Commission has ordered retailer PD Mart (formerly Panda Mart) to halt the sale of car seats over safety concerns.
The regulator issued a 'stop now' letter to PD Mart, while it investigated potentially misleading labelling that may have falsely claimed the products complied with car seat safety standards.
PD Mart has initiated a recall of all affected car seats, and the information has been published on the government's Product Safety website.
"The Commission has zero tolerance for risks to children's safety," said competition, fair trading and credit general manager Vanessa Horne.
The Commission said it had an ongoing investigation into PD Mart due to safety concerns about multiple products.
"During this investigation, we also identified issues with car seats, which feature labels claiming compliance with recognised safety standards - claims the Commission believes may be false or misleading," Horne said.
"We consider this likely to be a breach of the Fair Trading Act, and consumers may have been misled into believing the products were compliant with safety standards, when that is likely not the case."
Some of affected car seats. Photo: Commerce Commission / supplied
"Basically they didn't have the required product safety labelling on them," Horne later told Midday Report.
"Whether you could use them forward facing or backward facing... sorts of things that parents want to find out about their car seats before they use the were not included in the sales."
She said there were "a few investigations" underway into PD Mart, mostly around products aimed at parents and children under the age of three.
The Commission said initial assessments indicated the car seats did not meet all safety standards.
It said some car seats lacked proper installation instructions, which was a "critical omission".
"When critical information regarding installation and use is not provided, the consequences can be serious," Horne said.
PD Mart has stores in Auckland and Christchurch, and sells more than 50,000 products.
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